Reasons
by Ihatechoosinganame
Summary: A retired Alex Rider finds a reason to return to MI6 and a reason to fight. One-shot. (Crappy Summary don't know how to word it but I think its a pretty good story). M for safety because I am paranoid.


**Disclaimer: I would like to just state the obvious, I do not own Alex Rider or anything recognizable. It does talk about deaths but nothing too graphic (I don't think). I'd also like to state that I am not the best at grammar and spelling. I have a tendency to add extra E's, forget commas or over use them exc. I hope you enjoy. Please be gentle with reviews if you give them. I don't mind criticism but I am a bit of a nervous writer and though I've had no problems with reviews as of yet I thought I would add that. I hope you enjoy my story.**

Alex had been out of MI6 for six months. He was back to being a regular 15 year old. He was caught up on school work and was gaining back lost friends. He was loving his freedom from MI6. He was finally free from fighting someone else's battles. He had his life back, or so he thought.

May 30th started out as any other day. It was a beautiful warm morning. Everyone was going from class to class wanting the day to be over so they could go outside and enjoy the weather. The lunch bell rang and everyone hurried to the cafeteria. Everything was perfectly normal, until it wasn't.

It happened so fast. One minute Alex was talking with a couple of people from the football team then everything went black. When he began to wake up, he was expecting to be on some job for MI6 but then he realized where he was. He was in his school. The room was destroyed but he still recognized the hallway despite the damage and the thick dust that coated the air. Trying to remember what happened, he looked around. It was through his experience with MI6 that he recognized what happened, a bomb. Someone had set off a bomb in the cafeteria. He had been just outside the blast zone. Close enough to be thrown but far enough away to be able to get up and see the bodies, hear the screams of pain and horror.

Nothing in all his time at MI6 prepared him for the bodies of his classmates and friends. He recognized the sound of emergency vehicles arriving. Emergency personnel began forcing those that could walk out of the building which seemed to be falling apart. Alex just sat on the field where people were being gathered, looking at the rubble, looking at the school which he both loved and hated. He watched his friends taken away on stretchers.

He watched them lay sheets on the bodies of his classmates. People he both loved and hated. They covered the girl he sat with in English with a sheet labelling her as deceased, they did not bother trying to resuscitate her. She was barely recognizable with the blood coating her body. Then the boy who had been the largest driving force on the 'druggy Alex' comments was covered after the EMT's checked him for a pulse and found none.

He watched them take Tom, the best friend he had away on a stretcher. The other 15 year old boy was not conscious. The only reason Alex knew his best friend was alive was the fact that they were moving him into an ambulance, if he was dead they would have just left him with the other bodies.

People were screaming and crying but his ears were just ringing. He wasn't even completely hearing them. He wasn't even really seeing what was happening. He had fought Assassins, escaped sharks and stingrays, he had nearly been dissected, fell from space, he had been in dozens of situations where he felt helpless, unable to stop what was happening but he had never before seen something that made him feel so completely broken.

Finally one of the EMT's made their way to where he was sitting in the field. He couldn't even remember how he had gotten there. "Kid are you okay," the EMT's demanded kneeling beside him seeing the blood.

Alex blinked at him, it took him a minute to realize what was being asked. "I'm fine," he said not even acknowledging his own injuries. The EMT gave him a once over before moving on to the next kid. He was not fine but he was in better shape than most.

Eventually, Alex just got up and walked home, ignoring everything that was happening around him. No one stopped him. He walked to the house and Jack screamed seeing the blood. After the initial shock, she hugged him sobbing having heard about the explosions and spent the last hour and a half wondering if he was dead or alive. She told him it was not the only one causing him to realize it wasn't his fault. He always thought that being a spy would bring an attack to his school but it had nothing to do with him. A completely separate incident. He did not know if that made it better or worse.

He didn't comfort her as he normally would have done. He just gave her cheek a kiss and went to his room. Not bothering to even peel off his bloody cloths, he just collapsed into the bed.

The next morning he listened to the news with a detached sense of horror. He had hoped it was a dream but knew it wasn't when he woke up still covered in blood and dirt, aching from when he was thrown. Still he had not realized just how bad it had been until he came down and saw the news reports. 15 other bombs were laid out as a single terrorist attack on British soil. A shopping mall, two banks, one restaurant, a call center, a law office, a hospital, and a dentist's office. Not even dentists were safe. 696 people were killed. 7 of the bombs were in schools meaning 309 of them were beneath 18 years old. One of them was let off during an assembly in the gym where the entire school was in attendance. Others mainly near cafeterias or support structures. The numbers of dead were raising higher even as the news cast was happening. There were now 697 as a three year old who was at the dentist died in hospital.

He clicked it off and walked past Jack. She didn't stop him. She just sat there sobbing having lost friends in the attacks just as he had. He made the trip easily, most people were too afraid to leave their homes so everything was quiet. Few cars were on the roads. No one was out walking to school or playing at the park he passed. For all the chaos of the day before, everything was now silent.

Without hesitation, he walked into the bank. It was in chaos, a stark contrast to the silent outside world where people were hiding away in their homes. He had expected no less. People barely realized that he had entered as they hurried about their work. The trip to Jones office was familiar and he made it on autopilot. "Alex we don't have time," Jones stated barely reacting to seeing him in the doorway.

Alex just looked at her with an almost blank expression and she looked up from her work once again as he spoke words she never expected to hear him say. "What do you need me to do ma'am," he said causing her to freeze.

"You retired," she said stopping since the teen hated everything to do with being a spy. She never expected him to be back in her doorway let alone offering of his own free will to work for them. "You swore never to come back here Alexander."

"Yeah so I did," Alex said coldly remembering that day all too well, he had sworn never to do another mission for them. He had made it very clear that he was retired and they could get someone else. With Blunt no longer involved, he had gotten his wish. Things had changed though. In a day everything had changed. "I left because I never realized what I was fighting for. I understand now. What do you need me to do?"

She nodded wishing she didn't need him but she did. They needed everyone they could get and he would be perfect for the op that needed to happen. Everyone was going to be needed to take down the people who were responsible for the horror of the day before. "Are you sure?"

"You need everyone and I...I don't want to be waiting in hospital rooms," Alex said seriously trying to find the right words. "I wanted normal and you gave it to me. I have to thank you for that. I had my chance at normal. Normal apparently is watching your school explode with everyone you know inside. I wasn't willing to work here because I didn't really understand why you do the job you do. Sometimes the choices you need to make are beyond the well-being of an individual. I wanted a normal job, a safe job but those don't exist. They made it perfectly clear that no one is safe. I understand now the sacrifices that need to be made. One life for many. So I am here, doing as I swore never to do again. I am asking you; what do you need me to do?"

She understood that all too well that feeling when you realized just what was at stake. She offered him her hand. "Welcome back Agent Rider."

"I really wish I didn't have to be here," he said shaking it.

Tulip Jones looked at the boy sadly, seeing the cuts and bruises he did not bother trying to hide. Wishing he did not have a reason to return. Wishing he had not learnt that lesson especially at only 15 years old. "So do I," she stated without hesitation. "So do I Alex."


End file.
